Education Policy

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT EDUCATION POLICY - PAGE 4

Twelve public school principals met Sunday in City Hall with the Parent/ Community Council to discuss possible methods to improve and reform public education in the city. According to city education policy advisers, the parent council, part of the mayor's education initiative, will meet on the issue later with business, union and school officials. The principals at Sunday's workshop came from the Arai Middle School; Cooper Upper Cycle; Corliss High School; Dunne Elementary; Frazier Elementary; Henson Elementary; Charles Evans Hughes Elementary; Kanoon Magnet School; Ninos Heroes Magnet School; Pershing Academy; Sabin Elementary; and the Senn High School of Technology.

Naperville Public Library Director Donna Dziedzic will travel to Washington on Wednesday to participate in a White House briefing with the American Library Association on the state of libraries and their services. The forum will address such issues as accessing government information, intellectual property and education policy. Dziedzic, who is president of the Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies, a division of the American Library Association, said she plans to make a presentation on the topics of services to the disabled and small business libraries.

After all the recent acts of violence by children against other children, I am especially amazed by the recent criticism directed at Paul Vallas for the anger he expressed toward the administration of Whitney Young High School. As fine a school as Young may be, and as fine and dedicated a principal as they may have, the school was out of compliance with Board of Education policy regarding metal detectors. Would these same critics be so defensive of this particular infraction had any of their own children been hurt in an incident that could have perhaps been prevented by the detectors?

A Florida high school accused of discrimination must officially recognize a student club that works to promote tolerance of gays, and grant it the same privileges as other school clubs while a lawsuit takes its course in federal court, a judge ordered Friday. The lawsuit, filed in November by the American Civil Liberties Union, said Okeechobee High School officials refused to recognize the Gay-Straight Alliance and banned its meetings on school grounds. Officials at the school, about 90 miles south of Orlando, said the club was "sex-based" and violated the school's abstinence-only education policy.

Sen. Edward Kennedy endorsed Vice President Al Gore for president in Boston Wednesday, saying his former Senate colleague had "the ability, the experience and the wisdom" to lead the nation in the new century. Kennedy said Gore had been "the voice for working families in this country" as a senator. The Massachusetts Democrat noted that he had served in the Senate with both Gore and his father, Al Gore Sr., and he said: "The Gores of Tennessee represent the best in public service of our nation and the best in commitment to the democratic ideals of our party."

Family involvement makes more difference in a low-income student's success than whether the student attends a public or private high school, according to a study to be released Wednesday. The study by the Center on Education Policy -- a group in Washington that advocates for public schools -- found that low-income students attending private high schools did not score better on tests and were no more likely to attend college than public high school students, as long as families took an active role, said Harold Wenglinsky, the report's author and a Columbia University research associate.

By Wade Rawlins RALEIGH, N.C., June 29 (Reuters) - A judge said on Friday that a private company cannot open the first online charter school in North Carolina this fall unless it has the approval of a state agency. Wake County Superior Court Judge Abraham Penn Jones ruled that the State Board of Education has final authority to evaluate and approve applications for charter schools, including cyber schools. He said an administrative law judge had overstepped his authority by approving the school.

I don`t agree with Chief Justice Rehnquist that there should be an immediate 30 percent pay raise for judges. What do you think a typical employer's answer would be to a demand for a 30 percent increase because you can`t live on $89,500 per year? The Texas judge's dilemma in sending his kids through college could have been solved with a little advance planning, such as an education insurance policy for each child taken out when they were babies. There are several other critical professions more woefully underpaid than our judges and politicians-teachers and nurses, to name two.

After brief testimony Tuesday, the state House Ways and Means Committee put off a vote on a bill to let children with summer birth dates enroll in kindergarten. Chairman Pat Bauer (D-South Bend) said he would take the Senate-approved measure under further consideration. Under current law, children must turn 5 before June 1 to enroll in kindergarten that autumn. Under the Senate measure, the cutoff date would be phased back three months--one month each year over three years.